With no public discussion or input from Congress, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has quietly obtained armed federal police status for a small office of investigators whose big cases typically involve people sleeping on the job, falsifying documents or misplacing equipment. “I didn’t realize you needed guns and handcuffs to protect yourself against paper cuts,” said Dave Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a longtime critic of the NRC’s Office of Investigations. The police status was granted after the office claimed it needed powers it never or rarely uses, and raised the specter of clandestine and dangerous missions in letters and memos to other federal agencies. While police powers may be of questionable value in performing NRC investigations, they support a job classification that pays non-managerial agents an average of $130,000 a year and as much as $145,000. Next the Dog Catcher will be armed ... http://www.msnbc.msn.com

Hundreds of thousands of supporters of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr took to the streets of two Shia holy cities in Iraq today and protested against "US occupiers".The rally was called by Mr Sadr, who said in a statement yesterday that his militia followers should redouble efforts to drive US forces out of Iraq, describing them as "your arch-enemy".Today, clad in Iraqi flags, demonstrators marched from the city of Kufa to neighbouring Najaf, which is 100 miles south of Baghdad, shouting "we obey your call" and other slogans against the US "occupiers".BBC News reported that up to 1 million Shias were expected to take to the streets in Najaf.Yesterday thousands of residents in Baghdad's largest Shia slum, Sadr City, boarded buses and minivans bound for Najaf for today's rally, which was choreographed to mark the fourth anniversary of Baghdad's fall....http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2053176,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12

In the land that gave birth to "Big Brother," the future has caught up with a present in which drunks, hoodlums, litterbugs and other wrongdoers are being yelled at and lectured to -- as well as watched -- from lampposts. Britain has 4.2 million surveillance cameras -- a fifth of the world's total -- hanging off its infrastructure, and loudspeakers with microphones are being fitted to them in a government attempt to strike more fear into the hearts of miscreants. In the northeast England city of Middlesbrough, disembodied voices bark out orders to "pick up that cigarette butt" or "put that candy wrapper in the bin," shocking people caught on camera in the act of crossing to the wrong side of the law. Prime Minister Tony Blair's government is spending nearly $1 million to link microphones and loudspeakers to its vast network of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras as part of its "Respect" offensive to try to control the burgeoning anti-social behavior that ...http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20070409-122618-3886r.htm

Congress and the White House are locked in a high-stakes game of chicken over the war in Iraq, with no easy way out for either side. If Congress wins, American troops could be home as soon as next March - whatever the consequences for Iraq and the broader war on terrorism. If President Bush wins, the troops will stay and keep trying to transform Iraq into a stable democracy - whatever the cost in lives and dollars. History, political calculation and simple math suggest that congressional Democrats will blink first, but that won't end the fight. It's a power struggle with deep roots in American history. More than 200 years after the drafters of the Constitution split war powers between the president and the Congress, Americans are still arguing over the proper balance. The president is the commander in chief of the armed forces, but only Congress can declare war and provide funding for the military....http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/17045768.htm

Iraq's dwindling Christian minority donned their Sunday best and spoiled their children during quiet Easter celebrations at home, fearful of the bombings and abductions terrorising Baghdad's streets. "Despite the sorrow and pain, we have been preparing for the feast, which is upon us, buying new clothes for the children," says Hiyam, a 42-year-old mother of two arriving for the traditional Catholic mass with her husband. After church, it is round to her mother's for a Sunday lunch of deep fried meatballs and biriyani rice. Chocolate Easter eggs are not a fixture in Iraq. Hiyam and her husband say most Christians at the Our Lady of Salvation Church in the once wealthy Karrada district have packed up and fled abroad in the four years since the US-led invasion. The nationwide community, which stood at more than one million people before the 1991 Gulf War and is one of the oldest in the world, has shrunk over the years, with more and more people fleeing Iraq's insecurity for safer shores....http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070408/wl_mideast_afp/easterreligioniraq_070408201654;_ylt=Ald3FQ5Cw4bEnLOJR3BLTaRX6GMA

The nightmare for Adnan Mahmoud Shukur and his family began with a crude, handwritten note slipped under their garage door.Shukur never thought he would be targeted by the sectarian death squads sweeping Baghdad. He was a Sunni Muslim but was happily married to a Shiite. He had six kids. He helped his neighbors, regardless of their religious affiliation, buy kerosene to heat their homes. He disdained politics. So when the anonymous note came, ordering his family to move out of their home immediately, Shukur simply tore it to pieces. "He was very stubborn," said Shukur's nephew, Mohammed Noural-Din Mahmoud. "And very brave."Several weeks later, on Feb. 4, gunmen forced Shukur into the trunk of a BMW while he stood near a gas station, Mahmoud said. Shukur's 13-year-old son watched as the car sped away, then rushed home to tell his family. Two days later, they learned Shukur had been killed....http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-04-08-baghdad-abduction_N.htm?csp=34